KUDU 3-15 



kudu wander far out into the Kalahari. In support of this view I 

 may say that I have ahvays found both kudu and impala abundant 

 along the desert-road between Sechelis and Bamangwato during the 

 rainy season when the vleys (pools and lakes formed during the rainy 

 season) held water, but absent along the same route when the pools 

 were dry, and they had retreated to the Notwani river. Kudu are 

 very fond of broken hilly country clothed with forest and bush, and 

 intersected by streams flowing through thorn-thickets and clusters of 

 tall feathery acacia-trees ; but hills are not necessary, as these antelopes 

 abound on both banks of the Chobi and many other rivers where 

 there are no hills. Nowhere within recent times were kudu more 

 common than along the Limpopo and its many tributaries, such as 

 the Marico, Macloutsi, Shashi, Tati, and other streams in south- 

 western Matabililand, and the largest horns I have seen were 

 obtained in these districts. 



" Kudu are essentially bush-loving animals, and during the greater 

 part of the year seldom met with except in thick covert. Towards 

 the end of the dry season, in September, October and November, they 

 often, however, wander from their usual haunts in search of young 

 green grass, and at such times may be encountered in open forest 

 country, intersected with broad grassy glades. In such situations they 

 can be successfully hunted on horseback. The cows I have always 

 found both fleet and enduring ; running lightly and easily, and 

 bounding over fallen timber or other obstacles without apparent effort. 

 Old bulls, on the other hand, run heavily ; and if met with in ground 

 where a horse can gallop at top speed for a mile or so, may often, 

 though by no means always, be overtaken within that distance. They 

 could not, however, be run to a standstill in such a distance, but only 

 outpaced ; and as the horseman ranged alongside, they would swerve 

 off and continue their flight, always making for rough ground or thick 

 covert, where no horse can live with them. 



" So far as my own experience goes, kudu never congregate in 

 very large herds. During the rainy season and the early part of the 

 dry season, they are usually to be met with in parties of less than 

 ten ; and I have often come across a cow alone with her last year's 

 calf, or two, three, or four cows together, sometimes accompanied by 

 a bull, although the latter are usually alone. Like other antelopes, 

 however, during the latter part of the dry season the scattered bands 

 of kudu collect to form fair -sized, though never very large, herds. 

 The largest number I ever saw together was on August 31, 1880, on 

 the upper Umfuli river in Mashonaland. I first saw two old bulls. 



